Ex-teacher Convicted Of Fondling Children

A former Trinity Christian Academy teacher accused of fondling students during music lessons at the school was convicted on Thursday on two counts of lewd assault.

The two convictions were the fifth and sixth this week for Michael Verga. Three separate, non-jury trials took place on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.

The assaults occurred during piano lessons at the school west of Lake Worth between December 1993 and April 1994, prosecutors say.

Verga, 33, of Boynton Beach, declined to comment as he left the courtroom, covering his face to avoid news photographers. He faces a nine to 22-year prison term when he is sentenced on June 2 by Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Edward Garrison.

In closing arguments on Thursday, Verga's defense attorney, Margaret Eriksson, argued that Verga was the victim of a "homophobic" school principal, who tainted the testimony of six boys by talking with them before police investigators conducted interviews.

Eriksson said Principal Thomas Urso questioned Verga about allegations of fondling several of his students during a pastoral counseling session.

Verga, who told Urso he had a homosexual experience two years earlier but denies being a homosexual, admitted that he may have touched the boys' thighs platonically, but never fondled the boys, she said.

Eriksson said Urso spoke to the boys and their parents before reporting the allegations to police and officials at the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services. "Mr. Urso projected his homophobic compulsions on the children and the parents," Eriksson argued.

But Assistant State Attorney Barbara Burns said that Verga confessed to fondling the boys in conversations with Urso and church elders.

Burns also cited the testimony of two third-graders, who took the witness stand on Thursday and said Verga had touched their groins in a music room at the school during piano lessons.

A mother of one of the victims said after Thursday's trial that Verga was convicted because he confessed to fondling the boys.

"I think it's ridiculous," she said of Eriksson's claim that Verga was a victim of Urso's prejudice against homosexuals. "[Verga's sexuality] was never anything we thought about until this came to court."